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旷工 (kuàng gōng) — to be absent from work without permission; to skip work (unauthorized absence)

Definition

旷工 (kuàng gōng) is a formal compound verb for being absent from work without permission — a punishable offense in the workplace. It is a separable verb: 旷三天工, not *旷工三天.

verb
to be absent from work without permissionto skip work (unauthorized absence)

Examples

  • 旷工。
    Tā yīn wèi kuàng gōng bèi gōng sī kāi chú le.
    He was fired by the company for skipping work.
  • 。
    Zhè ge yuè tā yǐ jīng kuàng le sān tiān gōng le.
    He has already been absent without permission for three days this month.
  • 旷工。
    Gōng sī guī dìng lián xù kuàng gōng sān tiān yǐ shàng huì bèi chǔ fèn.
    The company stipulates that skipping work for three consecutive days or more will result in disciplinary action.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

旷kuàngneglect/absent from
工gōngwork

旷 expresses neglect or absence, while 工 refers to work, together meaning to be absent from work.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 曠; 旷 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
日日rìsun
Sound part声符shēngfú
廣
廣guǎng曠kuàng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 曠 pairs 日 (sun) with 廣 as a sound part; the simplified 旷 is a later shorthand, so its right side is not the historical 廣.

Open 旷 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →
Appears in
Workplace & Office

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